Are you a mother with a lingering worry those disposable diapers your baby wears every day are truly a safe option for your baby and our environment? If you've been weighing the pros and cons for any time at all, I urge you to review this interesting two-part article about the many advantages of cloth diapers that far exceed disposables.

For example, a child may use as many as 8,000 diapers from birth until the time he or she is potty-trained. The plastics and chemicals used to make disposable diapers -- not to mention being mixed with untreated feces and urine -- could take more than several lifetimes to break down. Imagine how those same contaminants, when exposed to them over time, may harm your baby...

This article also makes a compelling argument for cloth diapers versus disposable in relation to hard costs. At a minimum, reusable cloth diapers (amounting to about six dozen used until a child is potty trained plus accessories) cost a little more than $500. Disposable diapers, on the other hand, are almost double the money, nearly $1,200. And, if you use environmentally-friendly disposables, multiply your diaper costs by a factor of six.

Like eating optimally for your health, the key to using and reusing cloth diapers is all about allowing for the advance prep time it takes to overcome the expected and unexpected roadblocks you know will occur.

Weston A. Price Foundation Summer 2006